Category Archives: Skiing

On today’s show we return to the Chic-Choc Mountains of Gaspe in the Province of Quebec. (See the show notes from Doing Stuff Outdoors-83 for a detailed description of the area and an account of Gary’s backcountry adventure there this winter) One night they shared a hut with a group of skiers from Montreal. They had alpine touring gear, telemark and one of them used a split-board. Some had been coming to the Chic-Chocs for years. For others this trip was their first taste of eastern powder. That evening in the hut Gary talked to them about backcountry skiing in the Chic-Chocs.

Also on the show, comments from Gidds the Outdoor Gal and podsafe music from Blind Alley. Email us with your outdoor adventures, your favorite outdoor books and tell us how the recession is affecting your pursuit of outdoor recreation.

On the show today a feature interview with Rob Thomson, a young New Zealander who just finished cycling and skateboarding 20,000 km solo around the world. Here is Rob’s description of his adventure from his webpage, 14 Degrees Off the Beaten Track.

A JOURNEY OF OPPORTUNITIES – Welcome to my website about my journey around the world by bicycle and skateboard. I am an ex-office worker, and I never intended to travel all the way around the world. I certainly never expected to end up breaking a long distance skateboarding world record!

What started as a 12,000km cycle journey across the Eurasian continent quickly became a very different kind of challenge.

Photo by Rob Thomson

I began in July 2006 by cycling 12,000km from Japan to Switzerland across some of the most remote and hostile environments I had ever experienced. I endured -23 degrees Celsius daytime temperatures, cycled over 4,600m high passes, and put up with some of the most frustrating bureaucracies perhaps in the whole world.

However, on the 25th of June 2007, almost a year since I set out from Japan on my recumbent bicycle, I sent my bicycle home and started out again on a longboard skateboard.

I ended up successfully doing what had never been attempted before; I skateboarded solo and unassisted across Europe, North America, and China. On the 28th of September 2008 I finally arrived in Shanghai after skating just over 12,000km (7,500 miles). The previous world record for distance skateboarding was 5,800km.

I started this journey in 2006 hoping to experience the world at large in it’s most raw forms from a bicycle seat. What I got was a humbling, often exhausting, and always challenging journey into my own soul. These two years were physically, mentally, and emotionally the most difficult years of my life.

Our feature interview is with Holly Johnson, a busy mother of five who started working out and loosing weight in preparation for a half marathon. This is the second part of her story and the following is a written account that appeared in a local paper:

Tears well up in Holly Johnson’s eyes when she looks at the Donald Duck Medal presented to her by the kids and teachers at Tiny Treasures Learning Centre. It was their version of the medal Holly worked so hard to achieve and so desperately wanted but in the end was just out of her reach. “I can’t put into words what these kids have done,” said Holly fighting back tears. “If they can even take a little of this and realize how important it is to look after yourself and eat healthy and exercise, they’ll be OK and they won’t be where I was and learn at 37 that you have to do something.”

Holly Johnson of Grand Bay-Westfield, a busy mother of five young children, took on the challenge of her life in January. Until a year ago, she never exercised or dealt seriously with the weight issue that has plagued her all her life. That all changed after the birth of her twins when Holly realized she had to do something about her health. She went to Weight-Watchers and started exercising for the first time. She lost over a hundred pounds and decided to join Team Diabetes and enter a half marathon in Disney World. She trained and worked hard raising the $4,500 required to enter the event. Holly and her family went to Florida in January for the race. In the end Holly was 30 seconds behind the cut off time for the first five miles and was forced to pull out of the race. She said Disney officials, rounded them up, put them on the bus and drove them to the finish line. Holly said it was humiliating and people inside the bus were crying.

(I have to wade in here with a comment about this ridiculous Disney policy. I’ve run in a number of half marathons and everyone who can, finishes the race on their own. That’s what it’s about. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. These aren’t elite athletes running in the Boston Marathon. Disney World, of all places, should know better.)

Disney World’s ridiculous rules aside, Holly still feels good about what she accomplished. Together with the rest of her team, they raised a lot of money for diabetes research. Holly’s challenge also touched many people included the teachers and children at Tiny Treasures. Holly’s son attends the school and when they heard what she was doing, they all agreed to raise money for the cause. They collected pennies and coins and some kids made a withdrawal from their piggy bank every time they came to class. In the end, the children and staff presented Holly with an ice cream bucket full of rolled coins totaling almost 211 dollars.
After taking a couple of weeks off, Holly is back into the exercise routine. She’s going a fitness class at the gym and she and her husband are talking about getting bikes in the summer so they can all be active together as a family. Holly says she’s come too far to quit now. She can’t go back to the lifestyle she used to have. Holly says these three and four year old kids at the school are truly an inspiration for her and we can all learn from them.

“This medal is way nicer than anything Disney could provide,” says Holly. “It’s made by teachers and kids and I will treasure it forever.”

Also on the show, more of your emails about outdoor adventures from spear-fishing through the ice to hiking the Grand Canyon and more outdoor book suggestions including an audio book review from Anthony of Anthony’s Audio Journal.

In this edition Gary brings you the Chic-Choc Journal from his recent 5 day hut-to-hut backcountry ski trip in the mountains of Gaspe, Quebec. Here’s an account of the adventure:

I know you’re probably sick and tired of snow and everything to do with winter but I have one more wintery outdoor adventure to share with you. It’s about snow and snow and more snow. It’s about the most snow I’ve ever seen in my life. I experienced it in late February on a week long, hut-to-hut backcountry skiing trip in the Chic-Choc Mountains of Gaspe.

I’ve written about this incredibly beautiful and unique area before. This mountain range in the central region of Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula has 25 peaks with an elevation greater than a kilometer. The highest is Mont Jacques Cartier at 1,268 m (4,160 ft). Caribou graze in the alpine regions and the steep slopes are prone to avalanches. We go there at least once every winter for some of the best backcountry and telemark skiing you can find east of the Rocky Mountains. This year when we were there, to our delight, the area surpassed even the west in terms of deep powder.
Our trip started at Le Relais Chic-Chocs, a lodge and cabins that in the winter cater mainly to skiers and snowmobilers. We woke up to sunshine and began our ski to the Le Huard hut. With sleeping for 16 it’s the largest hut in the system. There is no running water or electricity but we arrange for a snowmobile to bring in our heavier packs and food so we can ski with a lighter day-pack. That afternoon the nice weather allowed us to ski to the summit of one of the nearby peaks and take in the breathtaking scenery. The run back down to our cabin made the climb up worthwhile.

The next day we headed for a two night stay at La Nyctale hut in the shadow of Mount Logan. What started as light snow in the morning soon developed into a full blown blizzard, a common occurrence in the Chic-Chocs. Five hours later we arrived at the hut in near whiteout conditions, after trudging through waist deep snow in some places. Thankful for shelter, we settled in and didn’t leave the hut for the rest of the day. Heavy snow and howling wind continued all night and through the next day but we did venture out to play a little in all that new snow. We found a sheltered slope in the trees not far from the hut and attempted to make a few turns. I say attempted because the snow was so deep we could barely get through it, even on the steeper pitches. One member of our party has been skiing there for the last 15 years and he’s never seen the snow so deep. We sunk to our waists and the powder was truly bottomless. Looking down a tree-well we saw what looked like the base of the trunk 15 to 18 feet below us. That’s how much snow had accumulated so far this winter. When the storm finally ended the next morning we guessed it must have dumped at least 70 more cm of snow.
We awoke to a white, winter-wonderland. In the higher elevation where we were, the trees were so coated with ice and snow you couldn’t see any branches. The white shapes they formed are called ‘snow ghosts’ and they look like frozen people. I’ve seen this many times before in alpine areas but never to this extent. It was surreal. We took our time skiing to our final hut, enjoying the incredible scenery and warm sun. We were at a lower elevation and that afternoon the snow had settled enough for us to play on treed mountain behind the hut. We skinned up and skied down through waist deep powder, finishing the run on the frozen lake beside the cabin. The snow was so deep, some of us even skied off the roof of the hut. It was an incredible day at the end of a truly memorable trip.

It’s always a great experience in the Chic-Chocs but this winter was special, mainly due to the extreme snow. We’re talking about going back in late April for more telemark skiing. This season I’m sure the snow will be still be deep on those slopes through May and well into June.

In this edition we meet outdoor adventurer, expedition leader and author Maria Coffey. She’s written eleven books published in six different countries and her articles have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Sea Kayaker Magazine, Action Asia and Outdoors Illustrated. Maria and her husband Dag Goering operate ‘Hidden Places‘, a “boutique” adventure travel company offering high quality guided expeditions in some of the world’s most inspiring places. Maria’s latest book looks at what compels extreme adventurers to push the boundaries of human ability and what they discover when they do. In ‘Explorers of the Infinite’, Maria interviews mountaineers, snowboarders, kayakers, surfers, base-jumpers and other extreme athletes. They reveal some extraordinary spiritual transformations and paranormal experiences. Shortly after this interview was recorded Maria was also interviewed by Oprah Winfrey.

Also on the show a podsafe song from Alison Crowe and an email about a powder day on the slopes from our buddy Warren in Alberta. Send Gary an email about your best outdoor adventure. It doesn’t have to be extreme, just a fun day skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, climbing, kayaking…. whatever. What kind of stuff do you do in the outdoors? We want you on the show. Email Gary at doingstuffoutdoors@yahoo.ca

Our feature interview today is with a guy who went on a 5 day hike on the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota which runs along the north shore of Lake Superior from Two Harbors all the way to the Canadian border. Jason Francis of Stevens Point, Wisconsin hiked about 45 miles of the 205 mile trail by himself. He says it was some of the most beautiful country he’s ever seen. We’ll talk to Jason about his adventure and then next time on DSO we’ll have another interview about the trail, this time with avid hiker Kurt Papke.

On a previous show we spoke with Gord Maddison of Ottawa, Ontario. He’s a high school teacher and outdoor enthusiast. On the same show we read an email from a listener in Sweden. Well, it turns out this listener and Gord have a connection and we’ll fill you in on this ‘isn’t it a small world’ coincidence. Gord also tells us about his new podcast about a hike in the Lower Great Range of the Adirondack Mountains.

Enjoy some Podsafe music from Damh the Bard and email us at doingstuffoutdoors@yahoo.ca.

The Fundy Footpath is a rugged, wilderness hiking trail that hugs the Bay of Fundy shoreline in the province of New Brunswick. It’s a tough trail with lots of ups and downs and switchbacks. Usually this 50 km trail is a three day hike. Our feature interview today is with two guys who along with a few others, ran this trail in 13 hours. Their names are Lloyd English and Darrell Travis and they’re no slouches. Both run marathons, in fact Darrell has run Boston 12 times. And they both agree, running the footpath is the toughest thing they’ve ever done.

The start of the ski season is just around the corner if it hasn’t already began where you are. We have a comment about skiing in North Carolina in October. (Who knew you could ski that early in the southeast.) Gary goes to the annual ski swap at his local ski hill Poley Mountain. Ski swaps are the best places to find bargains on ski gear. And a listener wants to know more about outdoor gym equipment in public places.

Podsafe music from The Crash Moderns. Email your comments to doingstuffoutdoors@yahoo.ca.